Kaiser defensive end Carmona Jose #47 celebrates the 28-21 victory over Grand Terrace after the Sunkist League football game in Grand Terrace on Friday, October 26, 2018. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

The players and coaches deserve the lion’s share of credit for this week’s state football championship game appearances in Northern California, but don’t forget the part the school districts are playing.

That would be the Fontana Unified School District (Kaiser) and San Bernardino City Unified School District (San Gorgonio), to be exact.

Whatever portion of the trip CIF State pays for San Gorgonio High to head to the Sacramento area to play Rio Linda and for Kaiser to travel to Santa Clara to meet Wilcox, it will not be enough. That’s where the districts come in.

“Our district has been great,” Kaiser coach Bill Cardosi said. The district offered to fly everyone to the game, but the team, including the junior varsity, the varsity scout team and the 18 coaches, are taking chartered busses. “It’s ‘We Not Me’ – that’s our selling point. We sell it to the kids at our lower-level practices, as much as we do to the kids playing in the game.”

The Kaiser contingent will include the team managers and the cheerleaders. Cardosi said the Kaiser marching band will not make the trip because of preparations for its Jan. 1 appearance in the Rose Parade in Pasadena – a huge honor.

The Cats will arrive in the Silicon Valley on Friday and will stay two nights.

At San Gorgonio, there is a large contingent heading to the Sacramento area, some via air (players, coaches, etc.) and some by bus.

“The district has gone above and beyond to help us out,” San Gorgonio coach Rich McClure said. “We’re moving staff and players up there and it’s expensive. There are also rooter buses with adults and kids and then there’s the band and the cheerleaders – the more the merrier. This is a rare situation.”

McClure loves it all.

“I’m ecstatic,” McClure said Wednesday night after practice while making the 90-minute drive from San Bernardino to his home in Murrieta. “How many times do you play a 16-game season? We started in late January and February with practices and weightlifting and are ending now … it’s tremendous.”

The good vibrations have permeated the San G. campus overall and the result could be felt for years, McClure said.

“There’s been a real strong, positive vibe on campus,” he said. “People want to become a part of it. All of a sudden kids want to come out and play football. That’s good because the ability to recruit your own school is important.”

As with Kaiser, some of the Spartans have never boarded a plane. The players are excited, but McClure is keeping them grounded.

“It’s a business trip,” he said. “We have our eyes wide open.”

Wilcox update

Kaiser’s opponent, Wilcox, has had a mostly tremendous season interrupted only by a second-half collapse in a 33-28 loss to Menlo-Atherton in the Central Coast Section Open Division I title game. The Chargers (13-1) committed seven turnovers and were outscored 19-0 in the fourth quarter.

“That was a tough loss, but I’ve always thought that a team needs a loss,” Wilcox coach Paul Rosa said. “You don’t want it in that situation (section title game), but it refocused us and we bounced back the next week.”

The Chargers were finally able to celebrate wildly after defeating Capital Christian of Sacramento 34-30 last week for the NorCal title and a berth in Saturday night’s game against the Cats.

“Some of our fans were confused,” Rosa said. “When we lost the M-A game, they didn’t know we were going to continue to play and then when we played and won against Capital Christian, they started to understand it more … It’s weird to be playing on Dec. 15 – it’s a long way from when we first started.”

Rosa was the Wilcox baseball coach until switching to football in 2015, when the current group of Chargers entered the school.

“Football is the ultimate team sport,” said Rosa, a former two-sport star at the school. “With baseball I could almost coach the team myself and be OK, but in football it would be impossible. It’s just a different animal.”

Kaiser versus Wilcox is an all-public school showdown, a topic that’s been bandied about on at least one prep football message board. Resentment lingers in some corners against private schools that have open enrollment.

“It’s kind of cool that we’re playing each other,” Rosa said. “In these things you’re either usually playing a massive public school or a private school, but in this game you have two similar schools. When we were about to play Capital Christian, I was getting emails from people in their area saying they hoped we would beat them.”

Rio Linda revved up

The small, Sacramento County town of Rio Linda (population about 15,000) is at a fever pitch about Saturday night’s game against San Gorgonio.

The formerly downtrodden program and its colorful coach, Jack Garceau, are enjoying the resurgence and the Knights’ march to the state title game.

“Tickets, hats, shirts, ‘Can I get those?’ ” Garceau told Fox40 News of Sacramento, imitating a typical Knight fan. “’How do I get a field pass?’ and all that stuff. It’s kind of one of those things where you have to back up and direct them to somebody else.”